Nakamoto: ‘No pressure to race 2014 Honda’

There is no rush in bringing the 2014 Honda RC213V into racing during the current season, Shuhei Nakamoto has stressed. The bike was tested for the first time by Dani Pedrosa, Marc Marquez and Stefan Bradl last week.

During the test at MotorLand Aragon in Spain, it was suggested that the 2014 specification bike could be raced before the end of this season, should Repsol Honda Team’s Pedrosa or Marquez enjoy a marked improvement over the current version.

"The test of the RC213V 2014 prototype was very constructive," Nakamoto, Executive Vice President of HRC, explains on Tuesday. "Dani, Marc and Stefan (Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP) all gave us similar comments regarding the positive and negative aspects of the new bike and these will be very important in order to proceed with the development for next season. The test was also very useful to work with the setup of the current bike and help Dani and Marc find something they both like."

Responding to the possibility of racing the 2014 bike this year, Nakamoto continued:

"The fact that they are happy with the 2013 version puts no pressure on us to race with the new prototype, so we will continue with its development as planned and will be back in Europe for the test after Misano or for the one after Valencia."

Heading into this weekend’s seventh round of the season at Assen, Repsol Honda Team heads the Teams’ Championship from Yamaha Factory Racing by 40 points, whereas Honda’s Constructors’ Championship lead over Yamaha is just four points.